In general, typical prior art lumbo-sacral traction devices for alleviating or minimizing the compressive weight on vertebral discs, cartilage or the bone configuration in the lumbar, sacral or pelvic area, from the upper body weight during injury, encumbered the patient. The patient was encumbered because these devices required the patient to be either confined in bed or to some other restriction, which did not afford freedom of movement to perform normal activities or to be productive.
Because of the non-ambulatory nature of these generally well known prior art traction devices, the recovery period was both frustrating and unproductive for the patient, and these disadvantages often times caused him to attempt to return to normal activities earlier than warranted, with the attendant consequences of reinjuring himself and requiring further and longer confinement to the restrictive traction device than was contemplated at commencement of the treatment.
The novel ambulatory lumbar traction device of the present invention is free from prior art traction device strictures which required the patient to be confined in bed with cables attached to parts of his body and weights or sand bags fixed to the cables in order to create tension to reduce compressive forces normally present upon the lumbo-sacral region.
As a result of the advance made via the ambulatory lumbar traction device of the invention, a patient undergoing traction treatment using the device has the freedom to use more than just his arms, because the ambulatory range allowed by the device does not require the patient to be confined by a vertically disposed or upright lumbo-sacral traction system attached to a chair, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,167,068.